5-hours day - Theses on reduction in working hours

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The struggle for the reduction of working hours in general and for the 5-hour day in particular is not only an economic struggle, but also a political struggle with a world revolutionary orientation.

The struggle for the 5-hour day strengthens the unity of the world proletariat in its revolutionary struggle against world capitalism.

The struggle for the reduction of working hours is a fundamental step on the road to world communism.

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From a historical perspective

... the fight for the 5-hour day is the continuation of the fight to shorten the working day at the highest levels.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, 13-17 hour working days were common.

The shortening of the working day was one of the most important demands on the agenda of the struggle of the international labour movement from the very beginning - and still is today.

The 12-hour working day as enforced by law in France is thanks to a revolution, the French February Revolution in 1848.

And the implementation of the ten-hour bill in England was one of the first major victories of the working class in the struggle for the reduction of working hours. This marked the end of decades of bitter struggle on 1 May 1848. Marx wrote about this in 1866:

"The 10-hour bill was not merely a practical success, but also the victory of a principle: for the first time in broad daylight the political economy of the bourgeoisie succumbed to the political economy of the working class." (Marx: Inaugural Address of the International Workingmen's Association [First International])

In the first volume of Das Kapital, Karl Marx described the struggle for the standard working day as the "product of a protracted, more or less hidden civil war between the capitalist class and the working class."

In 1866, Marx drafted a resolution of the First International:

"We declare the limitation of the working day to be a precondition without which all other endeavours for improvement and emancipation must fail. It is necessary in order to restore the health and physical energy of the working class, i.e., of the great mass of every nation, and to secure for it the possibility of intellectual development, social intercourse and social and political activity."

Marx put the struggle "over the legal limitation of the labour day" on the agenda at the Brussels Congress of the General Council of the First International. (MEW, Volume 16, page 317, 25 August 1868)

The shortening of the labour day is indispensable for the transition of social production.

The lengthening of the working day is harmful to the health of the workers.

(Notes of a speech by Marx, MEW Volume 16, page 554/555, from the minutes of the meeting of the General Council of 11 August 1868)

At the Brussels Congress of the Second International in 1889, the 8-hour day was made the main objective of the worldwide day of struggle on 1 May.

In 1900, the 10-hour day was implemented at least in the major cities and large companies in Germany.

In 1912, workers in Russia demanded the 9-hour day.

And with the revolutions resulting from the First World War, the 8-hour day demand was partially put into practice. However, the reformist trade unions were neither willing nor able to defend the 8-hour day won in the revolution during the post-war period.